Contact: Glenn Siegel, Ken Irwin, (413) 545-2876 www.fineartscenter.com/magictriangle
THE 2009 MAGIC TRIANGLE JAZZ SERIES PRESENTS:
The ‘Kidd’ Jordan Trio
The Magic Triangle Jazz Series, produced by WMUA, 91.1FM and the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, begins its 20th season on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009 with an 8:00pm performance by the ‘Kidd’ Jordan Trio, featuring tenor saxophonist ‘Kidd’ Jordan, bassist William Parker and drummer Alvin Fielder.
The legendary New Orleans tenor saxophonist and educator Edward ‘Kidd’ Jordan brings his trio for an incendiary evening of improvised music. The list of bands and artists Jordan has performed with reads like a 40-year Grammy program, from Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder to Aretha Franklin and the Supremes. And the list of jazz musicians he has performed with is even longer, from Ed Blackwell and Ellis Marsalis to Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley and Cecil Taylor. European audiences have long known about Jordan, who was recognized by the French government in 1985 with a knighthood (Chevalier) for his contribution to European performing arts. Americans seem to be catching up. Jordan was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in June at the Vision Festival in New York.
‘Kidd’ Jordan was born in Crowley, Louisiana, in 1935 and has spent his entire life in the New Orleans area, resisting the urge to move to a larger metropolis better suited to his avant-garde leanings. He earned a music degree at Southern University, and returned to his alma mater in Baton Rouge and taught there from 1974 to 2006.
In 1999, Jordan, Fred Anderson, William Parker and Hamid Drake performed at the Magic Triangle Jazz Series at UMass and at MIT. The resulting Eremite recording, 2 Days in April, was voted a Top-10 record of the year by Wire, Cadence, Magnet and Coda magazines. "The music emerges from the speakers like some sort of wonderful, piano-less version of Coltrane's mid-60s band, taking the music everywhere that implies in terms of rhythm, scale and power,” wrote Byron Coley, in Jazziz.
William Parker, whom the Village Voice has called, "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time," was born in the Bronx, and by age 20 was performing with Don Cherry, Bill Dixon, Milford Graves, Billy Higgins and Sunny Murray. In 1980 he became a member of the Cecil Taylor Unit, in which he played a prominent role for over a decade. “The creative heir of Jimmy Garrison and Paul Chambers,” concludes The Penguin Guide to Jazz, “Parker has emerged as one of the most inventive bassist/leaders since Mingus.”
Drummer Alvin Fielder was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1935. A founder of Chicago’s influential Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM), his first recording was Roscoe Mitchell’s epochal “Sound” (1967, Delmark). Although a practicing pharmacist in Jackson, MS, Fielder has had time to record with Ahmed Abdullah, Charles Brackeen, Dennis Gonzalez and Joel Futterman.
The Magic Triangle Jazz Series continues with Three Things to Say: Terry Jenoure, Billy Bang and Charles Burnham Pay Tribute to Leroy Jenkins (March 26) and Ganelin Trio Priority (April 28). Tickets are $12/general public and $7/students and are available through the Fine Arts Center Box Office, 1-800-999-UMAS.
The Magic Triangle Jazz Concert Series is produced by WMUA-FM and the Fine Arts Center, and funded by the: UMass Arts Council, Student Affairs Cultural Enrichment Fund and Alumni Association. Additional support from: Campus Center Hotel and 88.5 WFCR, NPR News and Music for Western New England.